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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Software licensing: the benefits of the concurrent license model

Software licensing agreements can be a daunting
task for an enterprise. Using a multi-plant organization as an example, I plan
to explain the benefits of the concurrent licensing over traditional per
devices/user model in terms of cost, flexibility ease of use and administration.

With a devices locked license, fees are
applied based on the usage of that particular device. In the concurrent license,
fees are paid based on the maximum number of users or devices that can access
the software at one time. A concurrent use license allows users to gain access to
the software from any device on
the network on which the software is installed. A license server manager typically
administers a pool of licenses to be shared. The number of concurrent licenses
determines the number of devices that can run the applications concurrently. If
all licenses are being used, an additional device cannot run the application
until one of the other users finishes using his/her license. When one device
finishes using the license, another device can begin using it. A concurrent use license is not locked to a
single machine and, as such, can float on a network.

Now,
let’s assume that a casual user license is being used on a plant on average 2
hours per day. Casual users are defined as users that do not demand 100%
availability of the software. For a
reasonably large deployment, one can assume that the software license will be
used for 8 hours per day as all devices in a particular site will have access
to the software (4 times the usage and presumably 4 times the value and
therefore cost savings). Now let’s assume that your customer is an enterprise
with “around the clock”, multi plant locations.
In this situation, the software licenses that were only used 2 hours per day
may now be used 24 hours per day. This would be 12 times the usage and the
actual cost savings would not be so extreme.

Benefits Concurrent Licensing Summary

Flexibility:

As seen in the example above, concurrent licenses
can essentially replace multiple per-device licenses for casual users

You can empower an entire team with only the
number of licenses that are expected to be in use simultaneously, as they will not require a license for every user.

Easy and cost-efficient:

Concurrent licensing reduces the
administration, as it is easier to administer because the IT department do not
have to monitor usage as closely. Concurrent licensing automatically limits the
number of devices that can access the application at any one point, for example
five, ten devices.

This
model can save you a lot of money.

I’d
love to have your comments. First 10 people to comment below and follow up with an email to
Lucian.Fogoros AT Invensys.com will be provided with an outline of a WonderTube
Video program that can bring you up to $6000 usd in cash. This is a limited time offer.